Fools also grow old
My generation and the generations before us believed in the “What an old man sees while sitting…” bullshit. My desire is for young people to stop believing in that crap. Just the other day, while for a hangout with a bunch of youths I met on Twitter, I saw an old man, old enough to be my grandfather walk in in a trance of buffoonery and beg for drinks. Trying to lower himself to the level of those who are supposed to be his children without an iota of shame drove two strong emotions down my spine: that of disgust and that of pity. A couple of months back, a guy made a post on Facebook justifying something stupid and a lot of people were endorsing it. It’s then a Facebook friend(who I hold in high esteem by the way) came and commented: “Fools also grow old”
Since we grew up in a society which dictates that our elders and parents are never wrong, we took their words and actions as binding precedents for future actions and thoughts, never questioning their authenticity. That’s how we lived for a long time until people started questioning their parent’s choices. They’ve been questioning a lot of things said by elders. If they can question their parents, their presidents and even their priests, who then is a random stranger who has white beards? The issue is not to be older but to be wiser, and wise enough to speak accurately.
The truth as we know it is greatly flawed and we have been forced to think that because something has been existent or that it is a practice, makes it correct. When we say fools also grow old, we mean that you don’t have to put the argument of one person over another’s because of the age factor. It means that your father too can be wrong in a debate or in expressing an opinion( which in fact is just his) It also means that if you don’t cultivate yourself enough (by reading on diverse topics), you might become that old person someday sitting in a bar or with a bunch of young people and imposing your opinion like it was the gospel truth for them to digest. Why? Because you are older than them.
Fools also get old. So be careful when taking the opinion of people even when they look older, even when they sound wiser and even when they seem to know what they’re talking about. Even this write-up might be flawed and I hope the younger ones reading this don’t take it in as some preordained truth. You have a brain for a reason; use it. You are in a digital age for a reason; do research. But never let anybody fool you into believing that with age, comes wisdom. Only wine has the quality of getting better over the years doing absolutely nothing. If you were a fool at 40, there’s a probability that you’d be a fool forever.
(Originally written in August 2020)
